A Salmonella outbreak has been reported at La Luz Mexican Restaurant in Old Town Fort Collins, Colorado, according to the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment. As of August 21, 2018, there are six confirmed cases. More cases have been reported; tests are pending in those illnesses. Some of the confirmed Salmonella cases have been hospitalized, according to the news release.
Restaurant owners have been cooperating with the Health Department to try to solve this outbreak. La Luz Mexican Restaurant has voluntarily closed until more is known about this Salmonella outbreak.
The outbreak notice did not state if the investigation is centering on a possibly contaminated food, or if any restaurant employee has been ill. In the past few months, Salmonella outbreaks have been linked to, smoothies, dry cereal, precut melon, pasta salad, and chicken salad.
Salmonella bacteria can cause serious illness if the infection travels to the bloodstream; this is called sepsis. A serious complication of this infection is dehydration; many people are hospitalized because of that.
The symptoms of a Salmonella infection include fever, stomach and abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that may be bloody. These symptoms usually begin 6 to 72 hours after exposure to the pathogen, but some people may get sick a week after exposure.
Most people do not visit a doctor when they contract a Salmonella infection, so this outbreak could be much higher than reported. The multiplier used by epidemiologists in a Salmonella outbreak is 29, since so many people recover without medical treatment.
Pritzker Hageman, America’s food safety law firm, successfully represents people who have been harmed by adulterated foods in outbreaks throughout the United States. Its lawyers have won hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits and settlements for survivors of foodborne illness, including the largest verdict in American history for a person harmed by E. coli and hemolytic uremic syndrome.
